Deceased
An X through a square or circle means the person has died. The age at death is written inside it and the dates above it.
How to read it
A death doesn’t remove anyone from a genogram: an X is drawn through the person’s square or circle where it stands. The University of North Dakota’s guide reads the X as a person no longer living. The Multicultural Family Institute’s standard sheet puts the age at death inside the symbol and the years of birth and death above it, as in 1943–2002, and Washburn University’s guide adds the cause of death. In the row of children on the Institute’s sheet, a small square with an X is a stillbirth, and a small X on its own at the end of a short line is an abortion.
Also searched as: death genogram, deceased symbol, genogram deceased, x in square.
This explains what a symbol records on a genogram. Clinicians vary the notation, and a genogram’s own key takes precedence.
Deaths in the medical pedigree
The National Society of Genetic Counselors’ pedigree marks a death with one diagonal line through the symbol, not an X, and writes the year or age underneath (d. 1981, d. 86). A stillbirth there is a small symbol with the same diagonal line and SB beneath it.
Read next
- Next in Genogram symbolsIndex personA square or circle with a double outline marks the index person, also called the identified patient: the family member the genogram is drawn around.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of BurundiA white diagonal cross divides the flag into red triangles at top and bottom and green ones at the sides, with a white disc in the centre holding three red six-pointed stars. The Presidency of Burundi says the red recalls the sacrifices made to defend the nation and win independence, the green hope and prosperity, the white peace and unity, and that the three stars traditionally stand for the national motto, “Unity, Work, Progress”.
More genogram symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with crosses or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- GenoGrams, Jay Memmott, Department of Social Work, Washburn University, Basic Symbols, slide 3
- QA Case Review: Genogram Resource, ND CFS Quality Assurance, revised November 2022, Children and Family Services Training Center, University of North Dakota, Step 1
- Standard Symbols for Genograms, The Multicultural Family Institute (copy on a PBworks course wiki), Page 1
- Practice resource-focused revision: Standardized pedigree nomenclature update centered on sex and gender inclusivity: A practice resource of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, Robin L. Bennett, Kathryn Steinhaus French, Robert G. Resta and Jehannine Austin, Journal of Genetic Counseling 31 (2022): 1238–1248, National Society of Genetic Counselors (Wiley), Figure 2, Common pedigree definitions, symbols, and abbreviations
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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